Meadow intensification, a biodiversity approach

Mountain livestock farming relies on meadows, by providing pasture in autumn and spring and providing hay for the winter. They are composed by different plant species from various botanical families, being a biodiverse ecosystem with high resilience.

 We can classify them according to their intensification, depending on its fertilization strategy and livestock load. The most intensive meadows are fertilized by inorganic fertilizer and has high livestock load, semi extensive meadows are fertilized by manure and has lower livestock load, whereas extensive meadows are rarely fertilized and has low livestock load.

In this study, 12 meadows from the central Spanish Pyrenees where analysed, 4 meadows of each type for 2 years. Production was higher in semi extensive meadows, due to its organic fertilization, and extensive meadows had the lowest production. Looking at the quality of the hay, intensive and extensive meadows had similar protein content, being significantly higher than in semi extensive meadows. Fiber was higher in extensive meadows and the lowest was found in intensive meadows.

We used Sannon index to address biodiversity. There were significant differences between each meadow type, having extensive meadows the highest levels and intensive meadows the lowest.

High biodiversity can be kept even in high productive meadows, as it’s shown in semi extensive meadows, although they have lower protein content. Intensification practices are thought to increase productivity, with a cost of reducing biodiversity, but this study shows that lower intensive practices can have higher production.